The organization has registered Farabi’s 1150th birthday and Attar’s 800th death anniversary on its 2020 and 2021 calendars of events respectively, Iranian National Commission for UNESCO director Hojjatollah Ayyubi announced in a press release on Sunday.

“Countries can propose the birth and death anniversaries of their eminent luminaries to UNESCO in order to hold commemoration programs,” he said.

Ayyubi added that a variety of programs will be arranged to commemorate the luminaries.

Abu Nasr Farabi was regarded in the Arab world as the greatest philosophical authority after Aristotle.

Attar is mostly known for the Mantiq at-Tayr (The Conference of the Birds), an allegorical poem describing the quest of the birds for the mythical Simorgh, or Phoenix, whom they wish to make their king.

His Elahi-nameh and the Mosibat-nameh (“Book of Affliction”) both are mystical allegories similar in structure and form to the Mantiq at-Tayr.